Overview of the Guide

There are a range of resources available for researching the drafting of the Constitution. Some attempt to gather documents and/or citations from across the board--Convention, post-Convention, and private papers. Two such resources are listed below under "Comprehensive Resources." Some resources relate to a particular aspect of the drafting, and are listed on the guide's subpages.

To provide additional background, selected terms in this guide are linked to entries in Leonard W. Levy and Kenneth L. Karst's Encyclopedia of the American Constitution. For a discussion about the reliability of the drafting records, see James H. Hutson, The Creation of the Constitution, 65 Tex. L. Rev. 1 (1986).

Online portal for exploring documents by browsing the text, reading scholarly annotations, and adding your own commentary. Developed by the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier in partnership with the Brookings Institution.

Contains database of Supreme Court cases dealing with First Amendment issues, a collection of historical and jurisprudential documents, academic articles, and law review articles, and interactive timelines

Public radio show and podcast that focuses upon interesting and controversial issues in constitutional law, from gay rights to gun rights. Produced in partnership with James Madison's Montpelier, it features interviews with knowledgeable lawyers, scholars, and others about current and historical topics, including church-state relations, states' rights, and even the constitutionality of secession.